WCPSS Strategic Plan

The Wake County Public School System has implemented a new 5-year plan called "Vision 2020." The goal of this plan is to annually graduate 95% (or more) of all WCPSS students; each of which will be ready for productive citizenship as well as higher education and/or a career.

It is my belief that Technology Education, as well as the other hands-on skills-based courses, are integral to achieving this goal. Technology Education courses are essential to students' academic development in order to learn both tangible and intangible skills that they will need as they transition into high school, college, careers, and "real" life.

Tangible skills are developed in my classes through the explanation, understanding, and application of the Engineering Design Process (EDP). Students learn the EDP in order to develop the skills that they need to analyze a problem, plan a solution, test the solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of the idea.

Technology Education teaches students to develop and apply many intangible skills. The WCPSS Strategic Plan refers to these skills as the "4 C's;" Collaboration, Creativity, Communication, and Critical Thinking.

In order to model, teach, and reinforce the learning strategies needed to achieve "Vision 2020," my classroom must establish and maintain a culture where students are provided difficult real world problems.

In my course, students will tackle learning experiences that are active, engaging, and constantly changing. I must also honor failure as a part of the learning process. Students will fail to find solutions to many of the problems we research. Yes, I said it. Students will fail to find a reasonable solution to many of the challenges that they are presented. Failure in the Technology Education classroom is not the end; in fact it is only the beginning. Failure leads to dynamic learning experience in which the student takes ownership of his or her own learning.

As students work to find solutions to the problems of our generation, they must learn to use modern technology to strategically integrate digital and physical resources. Students will learn that there is a overwhelming amount of material and resources available, but very few quality answers are located by "Googling" a question. Instead of simple search engine answers, students will be taught that quality information about today's problems are often found in scholarly journals, scientific research, and other print materials. Furthermore, answer may not be written. Students will learn that answer are also found by communicating and debating ideas with peers and instructors.

Once a student learns that there is not an answer to all problems, but that there is a series of steps that can be used to gather information, evaluate the quality of this information, and develop a solution, then I will feel that I have successfully done my job in teaching your child, and helping WCPSS take steps towards reaching Vision 2020.